GOO GOO [ w o LE BOOZE r -- . average, the real incomes of middle-class families have grown twice as fast under Democrats as they have under Republi- cans, while the real incomes of working poor families have grown six times as fast under Democrats as they have under Re- publicans." For decades, rising inequality coincided with conservative electoral suc- cess, because voters were largely ignorant of the effects of tax-code changes and other economic policies, those in power were unresponsive to the concerns of working-class citizens, and broader in- come growth occurred in election years. In other words, the causes of inequality are essentially political-an insight that suggests that Obama might use eco- nomic policy to begin reversing a de- cades-long trend. "Unequal Democracy" is decidedly a title from the left-wing book club, and it suits a candidate whose language became more ideological in the days after the markets crashed, in mid-September. Obama began to refer to the financial meltdown as "the final verdict" on a "failed economic philosophy" -words that one of his advisers called "the key line in the campaign narrative." Another adviser told me that, in the final months of the race, economic conditions pushed Obama to the left. "Barack is a progres- sive person but also cautious," the adviser 88 THE NEW YORKER, NOVEMBER 17,2008 / . wrote in an e-mail. "He understands politics and understands the limits it can create on progressive policy. But as the times have moved, he's moved quickly along with them." Early on, during the more vaporous and messianic phase of his candidacy, Obama took more cau- tious stands than Hillary Clinton did, but this fall he began to embrace some of Clinton's positions that he had once re- fused to support, such as a moratorium on foreclosures and a government buy- out of mortgages. Obama was able to make a powerful case for a break with conservative eco- nomics, in part, because he doesn't carry the scars of recent history. "He's not in- timidated by the issue frames that have bedevilled Democrats for the last couple of decades," one of the advisers said. "There's never been a sense of having to triangulate." By the end of the campaign, Obama wasn't just running against bro- ken politics, or even against the Bush Presidency. He had the anti-government philosophy of the entire Age of Reagan in his sights. So events in the homestretch crystal- lized Obamàs economic liberalism. But anyone who has read "The Audacity of Hope" already knew that Obama is no moderate when it comes to the pur- pose of government. On social and legal issues-guns, abortion, the death pen- alty, same-sex marriage, the courts and the Constitution-Obamà s instinct is usually to soften the left-right clash by reconciling opposites or by escaping them altogether, to find what he called, discussing abortion in his final debate with McCain, "common ground." The phrase is a perfect expression of what Sunstein says is Obamàs determination to accommodate disagreement to the ex- tent possible. On issues of culture and law, Obamàs liberalism is more proce- dural than substantive: his most fervent belief is in rules and in standards of seri- 0us debate. Given the abuses of execu- tive power and political discourse under George W. Bush, this trait will bring no insignificant cleansing. But Obama's personal caution and conservatism, his sense of rectitude, as well as his idea of politics as a mature calling, shouldn't be mistaken for split-the-difference cen- trism on every issue. On questions of so- cial welfare-jobs, income, health care, energy-which don't immediately pro- voke a battle over irreconcilable values, he has given every indication of favoring activist government. When I asked Axel- rod if the conservative era had just ended, he said, "From the standpoint of values, I wouldn't say that. But, from the stand- point of economics, yes-American his- tory runs in epochs like this." He added, "That's what the theory of our race was- that this is one of those periods of change we encounter every once in a while in our history." A chapter in "The Audacity of Hope" titled "Opportunity" describes why "the social compact F.D.R. helped construct is beginning to crumble," and begins to sketch a new social compact for a new century. Obama makes a point of in cor- porating some of the insights of the Rea- gan era-such as the importance of mar- ket incentives and efficiency-but his conclusion, which is unmistakably Rooseveltian, is a call for the renewal of "widespread economic security." Simi- larly, in a speech on the economy at New York's Cooper Union, last March, Obama said, "I do not believe that gov- ernment should stand in the way of in no- vation or turn back the clock to an older era of regulation. But I do believe that government has a role to play in advanc- ing our common prosperity, by providing stable macroeconomic and financial con-